


Sending Out Parts

by marsakat



Series: Broken People, we're here to fix you (hospital AU) [5]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: All My Sons, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Angst, Cancer, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, nurse!josh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-15 02:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8038648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marsakat/pseuds/marsakat
Summary: As a nurse, each patient touches you in a different way.  Josh's favorite patient will stay in his heart forever.





	Sending Out Parts

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Tyler is dying of cancer, and he doesn’t have much time left. Josh is a nurse that keeps visiting him in the evenings to read to him. As Tyler is getting worse, they start on their last book - All My Sons by Arthur Miller.

Certain patients stuck out in Josh’s mind, and Tyler Joseph weighed especially heavy in his heart, even as he shrunk and faded away. Tyler was his age, and that– watching his family’s tears not just of grief, but loss of potential, is part of the reason why.

But then there were the music and books, as his vision left him, Tyler wanted to _hear_ and  _listen_ and _think_ instead.  His family would spend the daytime reading to him, and playing his favorite songs.  His brother and sisters, and various visitors would try to cheer him up, though tears would silently pour down their faces.  His mother would openly weep, to Tyler's protests, while his father tried to crack jokes.  Josh observed for the weeks that Tyler was there, always fascinated that every family responded to death in their own unique ways.

Tyler would always call Josh his "best fren", slurring from the pain medicine, and his weak, crooked smile was endearing.  Josh spent many shifts worrying about Tyler's health, even as he continued to decline.  Josh tried to leave work at work, but he was haunted by Tyler's inevitable death.

Josh would bring him new songs, or paperbacks from his church's thrift store.  Late at night, when Tyler was in pain and alone, Josh picked up whatever was on his bedside table and read to the the dying man. Only then did the nausea and shaking abate enough to let him rest.  Sometimes Tyler would even smile and hold Josh's hand as his favorite nurse rustled pages with his free hand.

The last book they read together before Tyler’s mind slipped into the dying fog got them both talking.  Josh had grabbed this tattered copy of  _All My Sons_ from the dollar bin, recalling Arthur Miller from his high school English class.

“Never give anything halfway, Josh,” he whispered as Josh neared the end, “You have so much responsibility in your healing hands. Do it all the way and do it right or else you’ll be sending out parts. Do you promise me?!” Tyler’s voice rose in panic.

“I promise,” Josh soothed and rubbed his hand.

Soon after Tyler welcomed the numbness of the morphine drip and he spoke very little besides gasps of “murdering twenty one pilots” and "kiss you".

Josh allowed himself to cry briefly in the med room after Tyler breathed his last. Then he wiped his eyes, fixed a smile on his face, and returned to work.

**Author's Note:**

> part of wormlersquadwrites.  
> prompt me @ teeentyonepilots
> 
> Probably one of the most impactive messages TOP has given to me is "don't send out parts." Whenever I find myself tempted to cut corners or be lazy, I remember that and be the best person and nurse I can be.


End file.
